Thatcham Banking Hub: Old Lloyds Unit Bid, Comment by 11 Sep

Thatcham’s banking hub has applied to move into the Kingsland Centre unit that Lloyds vacated four years ago, and residents have until Friday 11 September to comment.

Two applications went in to West Berkshire Council on 18 August for 1 Kingsland Centre, RG19 3HN:

• 26/01791/FUL for the conversion itself, including a lowered entrance door, two louvres and an external condenser in the rear courtyard
• 26/01792/ADV for the signage, covering two fascia signs, one illuminated projecting sign and a set of window posters

Both are marked “awaiting decision”. The council has set itself a determination deadline of Tuesday 13 October for each.

The hub is already open, in a temporary home

This is a move, not a new arrival. Cash Access UK’s own page for Thatcham (Berkshire) records the hub’s status as “Banking Hub open in temporary home” at 44 The Broadway, RG19 3HP.

It opens 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and is closed at weekends and on bank holidays. The counter is run by the Post Office and is open to customers of all major banks and building societies for cash withdrawals and deposits, cheque deposits, balance checks, utility bill payments, gas and electricity top-ups, and change for registered businesses.

A community banker from an individual bank attends on set days. The rota Cash Access UK publishes for Thatcham is:

You do not need to wait for your own bank’s day to use the counter. The community banker day is for the more involved conversations: payments and transfers, managing an account, learning to use online banking. There is a private room for those.

Back into the unit Lloyds left

The unit proposed as the permanent home is the old Lloyds branch. The design and access statement, prepared by Ridge and Partners LLP for Cash Access UK Limited, describes the site as “a ground-floor vacant retail unit, which was previously used as a Lloyds Bank” and says the branch “closed on August 24th 2022 and, the unit has been vacant since”.

LINK’s own access to cash register records the same closure date. Its assessment of the Lloyds branch at Kingsland Centre, published on 18 May 2022, gave the verdict “no additional services recommended”. Thatcham was told it needed nothing to replace the branch it was losing.

That verdict was overturned nearly four years later, and not because a bank closed. On 25 March 2026 LINK published a second Thatcham assessment, logged on the register as a community request. That is the route LINK opens to residents, businesses and local representatives rather than to banks. It found the town short on all five measures LINK tests:

• withdrawals for personal customers
• deposits for personal customers
• withdrawals for businesses
• deposits for businesses
• someone to help with transactions

The minimum facility recommended was “a banking hub”. The applications now in front of the council are the last step in delivering it permanently.

What the work involves

The building is not listed, but it sits inside the Thatcham Conservation Area. The heritage statement lists seven Grade II listed entries nearby: 18, 18A and 19 The Broadway; 31 The Broadway; 56, 57 and 58 The Broadway individually; the Buttercross; and the Old Chequers public house.

The scheme is deliberately light-touch as a result. The external work amounts to:

• a new double-glazed timber shopfront door, painted RAL 7021, replacing the existing one
• excavating part of the floor slab and adding an internal ramp, so the threshold meets Part M of the Building Regulations, which the current raised step does not
• a push pad for automatic opening, and a door more than 900mm wide for wheelchair access
• a new glazed pane where the old ATM aperture is
• one condenser in the rear courtyard and two louvres, each 338mm by 438mm

Inside, the unit is currently stripped back to shell. It needs partition walls, doors, suspended ceilings, full redecoration and fitted furniture.

The application form gives the hub three full-time staff, against zero at the site now, and opening hours of 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday with nothing at weekends. That matches the temporary hub and every other Cash Access UK site.

The signs will read “Banking Hub” in aluminium letters alongside a Post Office logo, one on each elevation, with the projecting sign going back where the old one hung. The two illuminated signs are rated at 299 cd/m² each.

Newbury asked and got nothing

Thatcham’s community request worked. The same register shows Newbury has been through the process twice and come away with no replacement service either time:

Those were closure assessments, which a bank triggers when it shuts a branch. Thatcham’s second assessment was a community request, which anyone in the area can start. That is the difference worth knowing about.

What it means for you

If you bank in Thatcham now: nothing changes yet. The hub at 44 The Broadway stays open on the same hours until the Kingsland Centre unit is ready, and Cash Access UK’s hub page carries the current status.

If you want to comment on the plans: both applications are open until Friday 11 September. Comments go through the council’s planning portal on the application page. The case officer is Donna Toms, the ward is Thatcham Central and the parish on the register is Thatcham Town Council. Comments have to stick to planning matters: appearance in the conservation area, the signage, noise from the condenser, access. Whether the town wants a banking hub is not one of them. A hub sits in the same use class as the bank that was there before, Class E(c)(i) financial services, so the design and access statement says no change of use application is needed.

If you live somewhere in the district with no bank and no hub: you can ask LINK to assess your area yourself, at link.co.uk. That is the route Thatcham took.

You can follow both applications, and everything else validated each week, on our Newbury planning news page.

Sources: West Berkshire Council planning register, applications 26/01791/FUL and 26/01792/ADV, validated 18 August 2026, including the application form and the Ridge and Partners design and access statement dated 17 August 2026; Cash Access UK, Thatcham (Berkshire); LINK, access to cash assessments, dataset published 21 August 2026.